In my spiritual work, I try to read a different book each week to help me become the human being I was meant to be and wish to be.

This week, I’m reading a fascinating book that has my head spinning called “Courage To Be Me,” a compelling, complex, and essential work by the famous philosopher Paul Tillich.

Tillich called his ideas the “justification of faith.” The book is a reflection on what real courage is and how we might find it.

Put another way, his famous book “The Courage to Be” argues that courage is none other than faith itself. “The ‘courage to be’ is the courage to accept oneself as accepted despite being unacceptable,” wrote one critic. I get that; I’ve been struggling with the reality of that all of my life.

This strikes a deep chord with me. I have worked hard to gain the courage to accept myself, even though, in many ways, I am unacceptable to myself and so many other people.

That’s a bridge to cross. In my spiritual life, I understand I will never come close to perfect or saintliness or be a pure and noble human being. I am broken, flawed, confused, and anxious.

But courage doesn’t come from the approval of others. It comes from the deepest parts of me. I am learning to fear fear more than anything else; it is the thing that makes joy and spirituality impossible for so many people.

Tillich thought the spiritual challenge of modern times was to gain the courage to conquer and bypass anxiety, which he felt was the true challenge of humanity. There are all kinds of courage. “The Stoic Courage,” Tillich wrote, “is based on the control of reason in man.”

This means,” he wrote, “that reason is man’s true or essential nature, in comparison with which everything else is accidental.”

This reminds me that our culture is broken; liars and thieves are worshiped and revered, and the good and honest are targets. Good had been turned upside down, and lying and cruelty have become virtues.

The search for courage is personal.

The spiritual challenge is to accept ourselves as we are, not as others tell us or demand that we be.

Every day in our culture, outspoken people with conviction are pilloried and attacked for speaking their truth because it isn’t the truth we were told and taught to embrace, and for which we are punished when we deviate.

. I was born a Jew and was horrified by the slaughter of so many innocents last week in a foreign country, not my own – soldiers women, children, tourists.

Some Palestinians and students suggested this tragedy was more complex; there were two sides to it, and the bloodshed can never be stopped without some recognition of this.

They were silenced, frightened, bullied, and denounced. None of it felt good to me. They showed courage in speaking their “being me” feelings, even if nothing in my life could justify the killing and burning of children in their beds.

Is there any hope that human beings deserve the world we live in?

Still, genuine empathy, the noblest of human pursuits, asks us to stand in the shoes of others, no matter how painful.

The people who have sparked so much outrage come from a different world than us and will have different ideas. I hope I never stop listening, even when it is offensive or repulsive.

There is no other way to learn. But it is really outrageous to point out that countless innocent human beings on both sides are dying, many of them for no crime other than existing in a damned place? Not to me.

I did not find this brief explosion of dissent, this shocking and unwelcome empathy, or the difference of opinion offensive;

I thought it was an honest expression from people with strong convictions that did not fit our conventional wisdom and reflected a world of different values.

We are not Gods; I am not the King of History. I do not have the right always to be in the right and to be the gatekeeper of truth.

There is no patent in righteousness. I have no idea what should happen; those images are overwhelming.

Our congress has been poisoned to paralysis by the idea that there is only one way to be right, and no one is left with the courage to object and stop them, even though they could do a great deal tihjt now to help people in horrible distress.

Plato and Aquinas wrote that courage and fortitude were the keys to courage. I can’t find either in the news or in our civic life.

But I seek it; I will not be a slave to money or other people’s demands, even if it sinks my ship. I’d rather go down than be a slave to anyone. I see that it takes courage to be courageous in our world, X (once Twitter) is waiting for us

I think courage speaks to the value of a human’s essential being despite the desires and anxiety of life. In Tillick’s book, Lucillus is encouraged by the great philosopher Seneca to make it his business “to learn how to feel joy.” It is not the joy of fulfilled desires to which he refers, for absolute joy is a “severe manner; it is the happiness of a soul which is “lifted above every circumstance.” It is the joy of speaking the truth about oneself and facing the truth about our world.

The courage to be me is the courage, expression, and acceptance of my actual being; there is the juxtaposition of courage and joy. I need to be no one but me, and satisfy no one.

To me, courage is the intersection of what brings joy and what is good and noble. It is the courage to live one’s own life and follow one’s dream and glory. And to constantly search for ways to do good and speak one’s truth.

I don’t need to be perfect or without sin, flaw, or even sweet, as people often demand of me. I need the courage to be me.

I’m taken with Tillich and his philosophizing; I see why it’s a classic. It’s a thought machine that survives through time and change. Courage stands out in history much more than hatred. It takes courage to do good.

I have been looking for the courage to live the life I choose and value and be a slave to sound rather than money. My time in the world is getting shorter, but my reason for being is getting more apparent by the day. I think I’m finding the courage to be me and feeling the joy of it.